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Highland and Bastrop Bayous: Implementing Watershed Protection Plans

The Galveston Bay Coalition of Watersheds will conduct an education and outreach program to reduce nonpoint source pollution in coastal bayous and Galveston Bay.

Map of the Highland and Bastrop Bayous watersheds showing stream segments.

On this page:

Project Area

River Basin: Trinity-San Jacinto

Water Bodies: Bastrop Bayou Tidal (1105), Flores Bayou (1105A), Austin Bayou Tidal (1105B), Austin Bayou Above Tidal (1105C), Brushy Bayou (1105E), Highland Bayou (2424A), Marchand Bayou (2424C), Moses Bayou (2431A), and Unnamed Tributary of Moses Lake (2431C)

Location: Brazoria and Galveston counties 

Background

Highland and Bastrop Bayous are two of the numerous waterways flowing through coastal Texas that do not meet state water quality standards for:

  • Contact recreation use due to high levels of bacteria.
  • Aquatic life use due to low dissolved oxygen.

The watershed protection plans (WPPs) for these watersheds have a total of twelve assessment units—water bodies or sections of them—that exceed standards and are listed on the 2022 Texas Integrated Report of Surface Water Quality for Clean Water Act Sections 305(b) and 303(d).

In 2017, the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service (AgriLife) brought together key stakeholders from four watersheds in Brazoria and Galveston counties (Highland, Bastrop, Dickenson, and Jarbo Bayous) to form the Galveston Bay Coalition of Watersheds (Coalition).

Two Coalition watersheds have  U.S. Environmental Protection Agency-accepted WPPs: Highland Bayou, accepted in 2021, and Bastrop Bayou, accepted in 2016. These WPPs include many of the same or similar management measures. By partnering and collaborating between watersheds on implementing the WPPs the Coalition can reduce the burden on stakeholders.

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Project Description

November 2023 – August 2026

Actions for AgriLife:

  • Expand the Coalition’s coordinated WPP implementation efforts
  • Identify new ways to engage local leaders and the public about key issues.
  • Review and update the Coalition’s Strategic Action Plan that will identify targeted outreach materials that are available.
    • Determine new practices to improve the delivery and impact of efforts.
    • Identify specific actions the Coalition will take to execute the Strategic Action Plan.
  • Acquire and analyze current monitoring data to assess changes in water quality parameters within the project area.

Actions for the Coalition:

  • Hold education events in Highland and Bastrop Bayous watersheds that focus on strategies to improve water quality.

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For More Information

Galveston Bay Coalition of Watersheds

To find out more about the NPS Program, call 512-239-6682 or email us at nps@tceq.texas.gov.

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